Research shows that good typing skills contribute to good spelling and writing. Learning to type is important for primary school children!
Most children who do TypeTopia are very enthusiastic. So is Tessa (9) from Neerpelt, Belgium. “I really like doing it!” What’s special is that she came up with the idea of taking our typing course herself after doing the trial lesson. “Because I don’t want to type with just one finger”, she says. Her mother Noëlla (37) did not have good experiences with the typing course of her son Rune, Tessa’s two-year older brother. Yet she changed her mind. In this blog, she shares her experiences and tells about the differences between the regular typing course at school and TypeTopia.
Why did you want your children to learn how to touch type?
“We live in a world where a computer is unimaginable. Even at school, computer lessons start early. Children learn to send e-mails, make PowerPoints, homework is occasionally done via Kweetet or Bingel and you name it. When I saw that the eldest was typing all this letter by letter, it took up a lot of my time. To my own frustration and that of the children.
A super-easy spelling exercise took such a long time. I knew that children at a later age, in secondary school, could take typing lessons. But I think the material there will be a bit harder than in primary school. So to make the school burden a little more bearable, I wanted them to learn it now.”
Your son was the first one to take typing classes. How did you find a typing course for him?
“He was given information at school and then someone came to tell him about the course at home. We had never heard of any other typing courses and this one at school sounded okay.”
And what were your final experiences?
“The first lessons went well. The home exercises were also feasible, fifteen minutes a day. But after a few weeks it became more difficult. He had to be able to do more letters and the exercises became longer. During the exercises different colours appeared on the screen: green was okay, orange was less, red was not okay. Having to redo the exercise once was not so bad, but then he would score red again. And then he would start again, because otherwise the teacher would not be satisfied when she looked at the homework during the lesson. And so a quarter of an hour often became an hour or even longer. A lot of tears flowed. I saw how frustrated he became.
It was also impossible to practise every day. School and a hobby and then typing again. There was hardly any time left to meet up with friends or do nothing for a while. The laptop with the homework was always waiting. A weekend away? Then the laptop had to come along too. At some point, the laptop stopped working. The service was good, because they came to replace it immediately. But then we were also told that my son was not doing well, practised too little, made too many mistakes, and that he would not pass if he continued like that. A few weeks later he took the exam, and passed with flying colours!”
How did you look for a typing course for your daughter?
“We certainly didn’t want the same for her as we did for her brother, which turned out to be a journey full of tears and frustration. It was planned to look for a course online during the holiday months of July and August. It did not come to that. But in early September there was a note in her bag about TypeTopia. Tessa had heard that some children from her class had done the trial lesson. She wanted to do this too. We allowed her to, but for the rest we paid no attention to it. However, she enjoyed it very much. The next day she finished her homework and immediately asked if I had already paid, because she wanted to start immediately. So she chose it herself. Now she is in module 14 and has not typed a single day against her will. I don’t even have to push her, she starts by herself. Of course, she sometimes gets frustrated when an exercise has to be repeated, but compared to her brother, it’s nothing.
What are your experiences with TypeTopia?
“So far, so good. You can practise whenever you want. If you can’t make it, that’s no problem. If you make too many mistakes, exercises start again immediately and not at the end of a very long exercise. You can stop after every exercise. Sometimes it happens that Tessa has ten minutes left before she has to go to training, and then she starts an exercise anyway. Apart from that, she does not need guidance. She does everything herself. Everything is nicely explained in the course.
It would have been nice to have more explanation about the games from module 10 onwards. We had to search for a few days before we knew exactly how it worked. It is great that as a parent you are also kept informed of the lessons and progress.
Will there be a typing competition at the end? One between parent and child? I think that would be fun. I never learned to type myself, although I type quite fast, albeit with four fingers.
I am a little less positive about the BlindBox. Maybe it’s because my daughter is small and has nice hands. But if she puts the box over the keyboard, she cannot see part of the screen. So we lowered the box a little, but that makes it harder to put your hands underneath it. That’s still a few points for improvement.”
How did you experience the course support and parent portal?
“You get a super-fast response to any problem. You can also ask questions via Facebook or the mail. Thanks to the e-mails, you stay informed about how your child is doing. You can follow along very well.”
What would you say to parents who consider using TypeTopia?
“Try it. It is much less stressful than taking a typing course at school. Can’t make it one day? That’s no problem. Children can practice whenever they want and wherever they want. And all that for a competitive price. I would definitely recommend it!
Have you become curious about TypeTopia?
Then read more about our typing course and why we are the best online typing course. In a series of videos, we are also happy to explain to you what distinguishes us from other typing courses. Or play the free trial lesson that Tessa also did with your child. See for yourself why TypeTopia is the most exciting typing course in the universe!
